The Future is Here: Space X Plans To Have The First Ever Car Race On The Moon in 2021
An ambitious startup is sending a pair of 5.5 pound, remotely-controlled racecars to the lunar surface to hold the first ever car race on the Moon, New Atlas reports — and a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will help them get there as soon as October 2021. The race is being organized by Moon Mark, a multimedia and education content company, which partnered with Intuitive Machines, a Houston-based aerospace outfit.
Only eight percent of the 100 kilogram payload is taken up by the remote-control cars, which will race around the sandy dunes of Oceanus Procellarum, a massive plain near the western edge of the near side of the Moon. The rest of the payload is provided by NASA as part of the agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, which is laying the groundwork for sending astronauts back to the surface of the Moon in 2024, according to an April press release.
Finally we've got people in important positions with the right brains. Humanity has decided it's time to head back to the moon and see what's going on up there. You'd think that would mean some boring moon walks, taking samples of rocks, lots of pictures and all that boring crap right? NOPE, WE'RE RACING CARS!!! I am all in on this. It was a running joke how Fast and Furious will one day have a movie where Dom Toretto is smashing the nos in outer space. Whenever they decide to do that it won't be so ground breaking since it's happening in real fucking life!
This also isn't something happening in 10 years that we'll forget about. Elon Musk's Space X company says October of next year we're revving engines. The interesting part is that the cars will be designed by high school kids. I guess since it's the first test run they're holding off the big boys from getting involved. I'm fine with that as long as this kids are super geniuses all headed to MIT or something.
The racecars themselves will be partially designed by six teams of high school kids from across the country, as New Atlas reports. The best two teams emerging from a series of challenges “will win a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build and race two vehicles on the Moon,” according to a February press release.
Regardless this is what we need to be focussing on as a human civilization moving forward. This is the way to advance as a species. Once we get the races down I assume we'll add weapons to the cars and have a Death Race environment going on up there. I'm picturing something like that chase scene from Ad Astra.
Moon racing: the premier olympic sport of the future. Please actually make this happen and don't be one of those Musk projects that never happens. I need this.